“I give to Senior Signature so that I can give back to a university that has given so much to me.”
rick o’quinn
Learn more at alumni.uga.edu/seniorsignature. 2017 Deadline: March 31
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n 1920, uga student newspaper the red & black published an article announcing an alumni-led $1 million capital campaign. The commitment from UGA alumni to grow the university’s endowment wasn’t the only historic piece of news. The senior Class of 1920 also pledged their support ($10 per student) toward the campaign. Those who pledged asked for an engraved metal tablet to record the names of the donors. Thus, a tradition was born. While the whereabouts of that plaque have been lost to history, the gesture was not. Nearly 100 years later, the Senior Signature campaign gives students the opportunity to invest in the future of UGA—and in return, have their names engraved into the university’s history. Led by the Student Alumni Council, the official student ambassador group of the UGA Alumni Association, Senior Signature encourages students to participate in a culture of philanthropy before they graduate. “We know the millennial generation is philanthropically minded, but giving back to their university may not be as apparent to them as other causes,” says Evan Tighe BSEd ’08, MA ’11, associate director of alumni operations. In 1991, the university began engraving plaques to list the names of Senior Signature donors. The plaques for each class are installed in Tate Plaza, just across the street from Sanford Stadium. On game days in Athens, alumni and their families can be found searching for their names on one of the 25 class plates. Being part of that tradition is undeniably why a lot of students give. “As a senior, I really wanted my name to be in Tate Plaza,” says Frances D. Beusse BS ’06, UGA’s senior director of alumni outreach. “It’s a special thing to literally make your mark on the university.” But there’s also the opportunity to pay forward what the university and its supporters have done for students. “I give to Senior Signature so that I can give back to a university that has given so much to me,” says Briana Clark, president of the Student Alumni Council. Today, students participate in the class gift with a $50 donation. Donors designate where $30 of that goes (whether it’s to a school or college they love, research that inspires them, needbased scholarships, or one of the other causes UGA supports). The remainder goes to the Georgia Fund, which supports scholarships for UGA students. Last year, Senior Signature raised $85,500 from more than 1,750 gifts. An estimated $36,000 was given to the Georgia Fund. Those funds, dispersed across campus, went to help support UGA’s mission. That commitment bodes well for the university’s future. It’s well established in the fundraising world that when donors give to a particular cause three years in a row, they are likely to become lifetime donors. The Senior Signature campaign is an early opportunity to be part of UGA’s long-term success. “A common attribute of every great university in our country is that they have a very involved and supportive alumni base,” says Tighe. “The Senior Signature is about getting students ready to be a part of that.”
geo rgia maga z ine | s pring 2 017
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